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EDITORIAL: Heed Medicare warnings

St. Joseph News-Press (MO)

June 12--As if scam artists need a new excuse to ply their trade: The government is in the process of issuing new Medicare numbers and cards to the nearly 57 million Americans who are covered by the insurance program.

This group -- those ages 65 or older and certain younger people with disabilities -- includes more than 1.1 million Missouri residents and nearly 500,000 Kansans. Altogether, more than 15 percent of the U.S. population can expect to receive a new card in the mail.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is required to remove Social Security numbers from all Medicare cards by April 2019 and issue a new, unique Medicare number to each covered person.

The irony is this effort is prompted by the government's interest in doing more to protect the private, personal information of millions of covered individuals. But at least during the roll-out phase, this potentially makes each person more vulnerable to fraud.

"Any time changes are made to programs that target the elderly, scam artists come out of the woodwork," says Brenda Procter, an associate professor with University of Missouri Extension. "... People who call offering help with your cards are scam artists who want your money."

Procter advises the mailings of new cards started in April, but most of the country has been advised to not expect to see new cards until "after June 2018." This includes Missouri and Kansas.

"Mailings this massive take time, so people shouldn't be concerned if their neighbor gets a new card before theirs arrives," Procter says.

She adds Medicare never will call and ask for your Social Security number or bank information. If someone calls and asks for this information, you should just hang up, she says.

CMS offers this additional counsel for all those covered by Medicare:

--You can and should destroy your old card when the new one arrives. An exception is if you are using a Medicare Advantage plan; the card for that plan is still your main Medicare card.

--The new cards are paper and you can print your own replacement card if needed.

--If someone asks you for your information or your money, or threatens to cancel your health benefits if you don't share your personal information, hang up and call Medicare toll-free at 800-633-4227.